


Dealing with Golden Devils

by Nitrobot



Category: Transformers: Prime
Genre: F/M, Implied Sexual Content, Semi-morbid
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-29
Updated: 2014-09-29
Packaged: 2018-02-19 07:02:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 900
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2379206
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nitrobot/pseuds/Nitrobot
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Airachnid liked to live in comfort even during the war on Cybertron, but torturing Autobots and hunting alien species to extinction never yielded much in the way of payment. That was where Swindle came in.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dealing with Golden Devils

**Author's Note:**

> I've been meaning to do something with Swindle and Airachnid, as strange as it sounds, for a long while, and yesterday I had an anon on tumblr asking for exactly that. As well as getting a chance to write this pairing I also took the opportunity to delve into a bit of Airachnid's role within the Decepticons, namely her hobby of hunting species to extinction (which was never really elaborated on in canon).

"We really should do this more often, Airachnid."

"What can I say? Lord Megatron likes to keep me busy nowadays..."

"I'll say..." The golden mech was always impressed with the scope of the spider's ship and the ever-growing grisly collection it housed. "And yet you still have time to find such lovely specimens?" Swindle tapped again on the blind eyes of a well-rotted skull, not minding the flakes of bone that cascaded to the floor as he studied it. Airachnid didn't mind either- he wouldn't dare damage something that could net him his next energon cache. 

"I take my hobbies seriously, darling." Swindle set the skull back down and gazed upwards at the rows and rows of similar carcasses, his whistles echoing through the deep chamber of the ship.

"Just as well, else we might have been caught long ago." Swindle rubbed his digits together out of habit, gauging the value of each bone fragment with just a passing look. "Which planet was it this time-Sybal? Xamarri?"

"Phoenix, actually. Though I hear Sybal is all herbivores, so I might visit them next," Airachnid revealed with a smirk. Swindle reciprocated with his optics still on the shelves, glowing brightly in the dim light of decay. 

"Obviously these ones are carnivores. Almost intact canine denta, thick but brittle bone structure..." Airachnid couldn't help but roll her optics at the mech playing amateur biologist. "I assume they didn't give you too much trouble?"

She shrugged, idly stroking her claws along the sloped muzzle of one of the skulls. She thought she recognized it; the head of a particularly nasty brute who caught her in the middle of slaughtering a nest. "They lived in packs, though it was simple enough to lure stragglers away from the groups. The matriarchs were a different story, but the scars are fading already."

"I'll buy you some new armour to cover them up." Swindle was still smirking, with something flirtatious flickering in his optics as he turned them towards her. "Straight from Protihex's finest smugglers."

"Oh, you spoil me," Airachnid tutted with a wave of her servo. Not that she wasn't used to it- Swindle was by far the richest Decepticon in the galaxy, and he wasn't shy about spending when it was for a good cause. The cause, in this case, was her affection and evening company.

"Why wouldn't I? With the species now all but extinct, we'll get a more than handsome price for what's left of it. The skeletons alone will get us five hundred credits a piece, even more if we can sell them to some tribal freaks." Conveniently, most tribal communities only started believing the bones of some alien species had 'magical' properties after they went the way of the lilleth. 

"Of course, I kept a few younglings alive, just in case we run out." Airachnid's smirk turned into a sincere smile as she remembered how the wretched things snapped and whined in their pods, still in their dappled adolescent pelts. "My Insecticons are loading them to the farms as we speak."

"Excellent." Swindle's digits tapped together with a sound like knives scraping, and his pleased smile was just as sharp. "Shouldn't be long until the extinction alert goes out across the galaxy and the prices start shooting up. I estimate about half a vorn until I find the first buyer. After that, your cut will be paid through the usual credit exchange-link."

"And my commission?" The femme only received half when she took the extinction task, with the rest to be paid after she succeeded. 

"Payment to your account should be finalized by tomorrow morning, dear. Buy yourself something nice from Kolkular." His shrug was dismissive but his lips strained to say _"something nice for me to slide off you next time."_

Airachnid flashed her fangs at that thought. "Just make sure it's around night, when Soundwave isn't paying much attention to the datanet inbox contents."

Swindle raised an eyeridge. "Can't you 'distract him' like you did with the Gorgonite deal?" To date it was the most profitable venture the duo had completed, and all it cost Airachnid was a few weeks recovering from burns and a night lost in Soundwave's quarters while her broker dumped all the credits in her account when no-one was there to be suspicious about it.

She raised a ridge of her own and cupped part of his faceplate with her claws, lips folding into a pout. "Oh, Swindle, I don't want you being _jealous_."

His optics widened and he tried to turn the coughing in his vocaliser to a dismissive scoff. "I don't get _jealous_ , baby. I get possessive, sure. And greedy, and indulgent, maybe a little selfish-"

"You're not helping yourself, darling."

"I'm just saying, I don't get jealous... I might take a few of those pelts you showed me for myself, though." She wondered if she'd find a pelt thrown over his berth the next time they fragged. 

"Whatever you say, as long as I get paid." She made to move past him to the living quarters of her ship, but he stopped her with a hand gripping her servo. She looked up with an almost-glare at him, seeing his faceplate softening into an amusing look of pleading.

"...no kiss?"

Airachnid almost laughed as her lying lips met his; exchanging secrets, glossas and energon stains, before pulling away with only smoldering optics left behind.


End file.
